Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Title IX is most commonly known as what allows girls to play sports, but revealed to us on monday, it protects and covers so much more. Title IX was created to ensure that there be no sex discrimination in education. Before I read title IX I wondered if there was actually such a law and I was subtly surprised when I learned of its existence. Even more surprising, was how little everyone in the room knew about it. Title IX is something that all students should be aware of and i definitely think not just our own school, but all schools in general need to focus on teaching it more, because I believe there isn't anything more important than knowing your rights. One thing that I found extremely vital to understand in Title IX is the "no person." Title IX doesn't just protect women, but protects men as well. Title IX in its embodiment is equality among sexes in education. If not many people know that title IX protects women in education, then even less know it protects men as well. As a feminist I see Title IX as one of the laws needed to know. Title IX was created to protect peoples rights and prevent sexual discrimination in education and feminism rose out of desire for equality of the sexes across the board. When presented with the story of Bernice Sandler the "Godmother of Title IX" I was very upset. How could someone say you are extremely qualified, maybe even more so than your male counterparts, but because you are a woman, you cannot be considered for the job. Being a woman isn't something to be belittled for and the fact that that was even accepted is appalling. Bernice Sandler was not going to take this treatment sitting down though, she scoured her books to find a way to challenge this decision and she only found a small footnote on the topic. In my opinion, though its disappointing that the only thing she could use to protect her rights was a footnote, it makes me wonder, this kind of behavior was very common, but why was Bernice Sandler the first woman to address the issue and then do something about it? That just makes me think that women were so afraid and complacent with their treatment that they gave up without even trying. In a lot of ways I still see that complacency today: women feel that their voice will not be heard especially because of the longstanding history of women being thought of as inferior. Of course there are many women who strive to make change and will not take being treated less than like Bernice Sandler did, but there are still women who feel don't deserve or can't get opportunities because they are women. Also Title IX was passed in 1972, 43 years later people still don't fully know what it covers, and there are still many other women rights issues yet to be resolved. As a young woman in this country I hope to one day make changes to these issues.